Valley Stream teacher: Audio proves principal axed class project

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A history teacher at South High School, who filed a grievance claiming that Principal Maureen Henry interfered with his final assignment last month, submitted a conversation that he recorded to the teachers union in an effort to substantiate his claim, the Herald has learned.

Henry told the Herald last week that she had concerns about the project — Operation Effect Change, which tasked the students with making their school, or the community at large, a better place — but denied that she ordered the teacher, Franco Visone, to cancel it. Visone said he has assigned the project for the past seven or eight years.

On the recording, Henry said, “We’ve been talking about this for years, because this project is not going to happen in the future. I’m gonna tell you that.”

Visone said the recording proved that Henry forced the project to stop. “It’s a matter of semantics,” he said. “She canceled the project without saying, ‘I canceled the project.’”

Patrick Naglieri, president of the Valley Stream Teachers’ Association, was given the audio recording of Visone’s conversation with Henry, which he said he believed was credible. Visone said that a coworker recommended that he record their encounter because “they felt that the principal has been untruthful in the past when these type of situations arise.”

Naglieri said, “We will be pursuing with the superintendent discussions regarding our disappointment in the lack of integrity and the lack of leadership displayed at South High School by Ms. Henry — in fact, lying and deceiving the community with her public statement.”

Students who took part in the project and focused on changes in the school sometimes included petitions to show support for their ideas.

In the recording, which was apparently made on Friday, May 19, Henry can be heard telling Visone that she did not want students creating petitions in connection with the project, and that Visone was “creating a fervor” by assigning it at the end of the year.

“I have and will continue to do what I believe is in the best interest of students,” Henry said in a statement. “I am not opposed to petitions but am very concerned when things are posted online. Unfortunately, I have had to deal with student online bullying in the past, and my goal is that no one should be subjected to that.”

Visone sent a message to his Advanced Placement U.S. History class the following Monday, May 22, via a messaging app for teachers that said that he was directed to cancel the assignment by the principal. That message apparently prompted a student in the class, Ariel Mangual, 16, to draft a petition that same day on change.org, urging Henry to reconsider. The comments section of the petition, which as of press time had more than 700 signatures, quickly became a hotbed of abusive language targeting Henry, and was later shut down by change.org because some of the comments violated its terms of service.

At one point in the recorded conversation, Visone strongly suggested to Henry that it is the students’ “constitutional right” to petition for change, and that his intent for the project was to encourage them to be “active citizens and understand that they have power.”

Henry replied, “Yeah, they have power. And who is going to be at the receiving end of that? Thanks so much.”

Henry said in a statement that although June is a busy time of year, she would be happy to meet with students to discuss change. “I do not believe a project of this nature should take place at the end of the year, when clubs and committees that can support change are coming to close,” she said, adding, “I am so sorry to see South High School enduring all this negativity, and I fervently hope that we can move forward in a positive way.”

Visone said he believed Henry’s attempts to alter the project violated his academic freedom. His contract with the VSTA states that academic freedom is the “freedom and the obligation” to present controversial but pertinent issues “in as impartial a manner as possible and at a level that is consistent with the student’s maturity and interest.”

Throughout the recorded conversation, Henry made references to students who had approached her about making changes in the district.

“Now you’ve caused kids having these conversations going, ‘I have rights! I have ACLU!’” Henry said to Visone. “You know what, Franco? This is ridiculous. Do you not have enough to teach in the course?”

Visone acknowledged that Henry did not have the authority to make some of the changes students wanted, but said that she could have worked to help point them in the right direction. He said he was passionate about the project, and believed he should speak out when Henry attempted to alter it.

“This is what excites kids about studying history,” he said. “This is what gets them to connect. And this is what empowers them to be better citizens in the future. We need more assignments like this.”

Superintendent Bill Heidenreich wrote in an email to the Herald that both parties were committed to resolving Visone’s grievance amicably.